5»3 



[To replace the print of August 17. The only change is the addition of the Appendix on page four] 

Ttie Fifty-fil Massacliusetts Volunteer Infanti), Colored 

JUNE, 1863— SEPTEMBER, 1865 

ADDRESS BEFORE THE BROOKLINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, MAY 28, 1914 ' 

BY BURT G. WILDER, B.S., M.D., LATE SURGEON OF THE REGIMENT 



The speaker praises the valor of the enlisted men and their conduct under distressing and wtjust conditions 
as to pay and as to military recognition by the enemy; criticizes the general managemeyit of the Department 
of the South; concedes the prowress and heroism of the Confederates, and thinks they would have won 
but for our blockade, if they had armed their loyal Negroes, and if they had equalled the Federals in number; 
believes the Civil War might have been shortened by a year if liquor had been interdicted in our army; 
questions the control of battles by the Deity, and hopes for an expurgated Bible treating less of war. 



Last Thursday evening, May 28, in accordance with the annual custom and by courtesy of C. L. 
Chandler Post 143, G. A. R., the meeting of the Society was held in Grand Army Hall, in the Town Hall. 
The speaker was Burt G. Wilder, emeritus professor of Neurology and Vertebrate Zoology in Cornell 
University, whose youth was passed in Brookline and Newton, and who, before joining the Fifty-fifth, 
had served nearly a year as medical cadet in a Washington army hospital, partly under the late Dr. 
Francis H. Brown of Boston and in company with the late Dr. J. F. Alleyne Adams of Pittsfield. On 
blackboards were written statistics ^ of the regiment, and there were shown photographs of some of the 
officers and enlisted men. 

Dr. Wilder prefaced his address with complimentary mention of three Brookline victims of the Civil 
War who were not members of his regiment, viz., C. A. Shurtleff, medical cadet, with whom he collected 
insects in boyhood; Lt. Col. C. L. Chandler, another beloved schoolmate, for whom this Post was 
named; and Brig.-Gen. E. A. Wild (previously the Wilder's family physician) who commanded the 
brigade including the 55th during the first three months of its service. 

Of the sixty-eight commissioned officers ^ of the 55th, the two successive chaplains, W.Jackson and 
J. R. Bowles, were colored; likewise seven second lieutenants. The remainder were white, eleven being 
Harvard graduates; most of them had already seen service. The first commander was N. P. Hallowell 
of Philadelphia (late president of the National Bank of Commerce, Boston); his early retirement 

1 Under the title, "Professor Wilder talks of his regiment," a report of the address was published in The 
Brookline Chronicle for May 30. With some omissions, that report was reproduced in The Guardian (Boston) 
for June 6 under the title "Dr. Wilder on 55th Mass." Revised by the speaker, the original report was soon re- 
printed as a leaflet of which the present is a copy with omissions, corrections, and additions, the last mostly as 
footnotes. The writer is preparing a history of the regiment based mainly upon his daily letters, which were all 
preserved. He solicits information — especially if derived from letters or diaries — from or about any of his 
comrades and respecting the actions, "Honey Hill," Nov. 30, 1864, "Grimball's Causeway," and "Rivers' 
Causeway." In the "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion" (referred to as "War Records" here and else- 
where in this leaflet) the first and most considerable of these actions is indexed also under "Grahamville, S. C." 
(now Ridgeland), Vol. XLIV. serial number 92; the other two under "James Island, Skirmishes, Feb. 10,' 1865," 
and "July 2, 1864." Although the numbers engaged on both sides were comparatively small, the attack at 
Rivers' Causeway was regarded by the Confederate military authorities as seriously imperilling the safety of 
Charleston; see J. Johnson's "The Defence of Charleston Harbor," p. 215; C. C. Jones' "Historical Sketch of 
the Chatham Artillery, "pp. 197-200; and "War Records, "serial numbers 65 (pp. 14-15, 121-126) and 66 (pp. 546 et 
seq.). It was notable for the courage and initiative of the enlisted men of the 55th in the face of unexpected, 
short-range artillery fire, and under a confusion or misapprehension of orders — which, mdeed, may have been 
disregarded. It was also notable for the heroism of the outnumbered Confederates. Valuable information has 
been obtained from their commander, the late Lieut. T. M. DeLorme, and from one of the gunners, William 
Mather, Dauberville, Pa.; but there remain to be elucidated several points, especially as to the infantry support 
and as to the exact location of the guns, and other survivors are asked to communicate with me. The forth- 
coming volume (14) of the "Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts" will contain an 
account of this action presented by me before the Society, December 2, 1913. 

2 Taken from the "Record of the service of the Fifty-fifth regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry" 
(based upon the letters and diaries of the late Lt. Col. C. B. Fox, and printed for the Regimental Association, 
Carnbndge, 1868); also from the writer's address, "The Brain of the American Negro," given before the First 
National Negro Conference. June 1, 1909, and printed in its Proceedings, pp. 22-66; (reprints may be obtained 
at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City, and from Mr. Butler R. Wilson, 34 School Street, Boston). 

' This enumeration is derived from the "Record" mentioned in Note 2; Br. prefixed to the rank stands for 
Brevet. So many have died that now is prefixed to the addresses of those known to be living at the date of 
printmg this revised leaflet, August, 1917. After the names of cities or towns Massachusetts is to be understood 
unless otherwise stated. 



■ •^, 

caused by a severe wound, was deeply regretted. His successor was Brig.-Gen. A. S. Hartwell/ Natick, 
late Judge of the Supreme Court of the Hawaiian Islands: Br. Cols. C. B. Fox, Dorchester, and W. Nutt, 
Natick, both late members of the State Legislature: Major S. Wales, Chelsea: Lt. and Adjt. W. P. 
Hallowell: Capt. and Adjt. L. B. Perry, Natick, now Buffalo, N. Y.: Major W. Pratt, Sterling (detailed 
as ordnance officer on Morris Is., where, from the explosion of a shell, he received an injury that caused 
his death soon after the war): Capt. and Adjt. C. W. Mutell, Springfield: Capt. W. D. Crane, Boston 
(killed at Honey Hill while acting as aid to Gen. Hartwell): Lieut. D. H. Jones, Winchester, N. H. 
(accidentally killed in Florida): Lieut. E. R. Hill, Salem (killed soon after the battle of Honey Hill): 
Lieut. L. C. Alden, Boston, the first officer commissioned, died from disease soon after the regiment 
reached the South: Br. Major R. J. Hamilton, then and now of Springfield: Capt. C. C. Soule, Brookline 
(died Jan. 7, 1913)*: Capt. J. Gordon, Chelsea (now Chicago, 111.): Capt. C. P. Bowditch, Boston, 
after a year of service transferred to the Fifth Mass. Cavalry, Colored, now Jamaica Plain: Br. Major F. 
Goodwin, Boston^: Br. Major J. D. Thurber, Plymouth, his present residence': Br. Major W. H. Torrey, 
Foxboro: Capt. G. M. W'oodward, Worcester, severely wounded at Honey Hill: Capt. T. F. Ellsworth, 
Ipswich, led in saving Gen. Hartwell at Honey Hill: Capt. J. C. Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, shot through the 
body at Honey Hill: Br. Major G. T. Garrison, eldest son of William Lloyd Garrison, regimental quarter- 
master, spring of 1864: Br. Major N. E. Ladd, Groveland, assistant provost-marshal, summer of 1865: 
Br. Major G. F. McKay, Boston, wounded Feb. 9, 1865, while on the staff of Col. E. N. Hallowell: 
Br. Capt. Robertson James, Newport, R. I.**: Lieut. T. L. Harman, Cambridge, now Boston: Lieut. E. A. 
Wood, Boston: Lieut. H. N. Sheldon, Boston, where he still resides; resigned 1915, as Justice of the 
Supreme Judicial Court of Mass.: Lieut. E. P. Gould, Cambridge, later Major in the 59th: Lieut, and 
Quarter-master G. B. Mussey, Edgartown: Lieuts. J. O. Mowry, Athol: W. Gannett, St. Louis: E. S. 
Stimpson, Salem: H. Holt, Andover: E. Fowler, Amesbury: A. Marsh, Fitchburg: W. C. Roberts, 
Weston: J. A. Bean, Natick: E. H. Jewett, Roxbury; P. N. Sprague, E. Weymouth: S. C. Starbird, 
N. Y. City: C. L. Roberts, Weston, now National Mil. Home, Ind.: G. H. Carter, Boston: J. H. King- 
ston, Lexington, Ky. : W. D. Messinger, Peterboro, N. Y. : J. T. Nichols, Royalston, N. Y.: A. H. 
Bradish, Boston: C. F. Lee, Templeton: G. A. Glidden, Natick: M. E. Hunter, Boston. The first 
surgeon was W. S. Brown, So. Reading, later Stoneham: the other assistant surgeons were W. M. 
Babbitt, Braintree, afterward surgeon 103d U. S. Colored Infantry: and W. H. Lathrop, Boston, now 
Lowell. The following colored non-commissioned officers were promoted to be second lieutenants: — 
J. M. Trotter, afterward Register of Deeds for the District of Columbia and father of the editor of The 
Guardian: W. H. Dupree, long the esteemed superintendent of Post Office Station A in Boston, where he 
still resides: C. L. Mitchell, Boston, and J. D. Shorter, Washington, D. C, both wounded at Honey 
Hill: A. W. Shadd, West Chester, Pa.: R. M. White, Sumter, S. C: M. F. Becker, Africa: A. M. Jones, 
Charlotte Co., Va. At different times there served Dr. Wilder as "orderlies" ' two enlisted men whom 
he came to know thoroughly and of whom he spoke in the highest terms in all respects; neither would 
taste liquor; David Lee of Co. C, lives in Xenia, Ohio; Andrew J. Smith, Co. B, in Grand Rivers, Ky.^" 

Like the 54th, the 55th was recruited mainly at the North; out of 980 only 182 were born in the 
slave states. Both regiments went into the field uiwder the threat of the Confederate Congress to kill or 
enslave Negro soldiers, if captured, and to put their officers to death. 

Both regiments enlisted with the assurance that in all respects they were to be treated as were the 
white troops. When, later, through administrative misunderstanding or pusillanimity, they were offered 
the pay of laborers, they refused to accept it and served for more than a year without a dollar; meantine 
many had been killed in battle or died of disease, and the families of some were in want. 

At Honey Hill, November 30, 1864, after several other regiments had been repulsed, a battalion of 
the 55th charged the Confederate works, losing in a few moments, killed and wounded, about half the 
officers and one-third the enlisted men engaged. At Rivers' Causeway, July 2, 1864, after the repulse of 
two other regiments by unexpected artillery, the 55th enlisted men, without orders, charged and captured 



< At Honey Hill, while leading the last charge, he was thrice wounded, his horse was killed and fell upon 
him, and he was saved with difficulty. 

5 Soule's company (K) led the charge at Rivers' Causeway; he was slightly wounded at Honey Hill, of 
which battle he has published an account; as head of the Boston Book Company he promoted the publication of 
Capt. Emilio's admirable history of the 54th (Shaw's), "A brave black regiment." He was very witty and the 
life of any gathering of officers; at one of these he perpetrated the following epitaph on the speaker of whom he 
was a beloved schoolmate: 

" Hie jacet Burlus, doctor medicinae; ferus natura, ferior nomine." 

> At Rivers' Causeway he was severely wounded in both thighs, and while upon the stretcher the cross-bar 
was broken by a piece of shell; the timidity of the bearers upon that occasion was overcome by the unwonted 
imprecations of the speaker, who believes they will be forgiven; he has a vivid memory of his sensations under 
musketry, canister, and shell, and maintains that "Who says he was never afraid under fire is probably either a 
fool or a liar." 

' Thurber was slightly wounded at Rivers' Causeway; his company (F) had been trained in artillery; he 
and the non-commissioned officers carried friction-primers and at least one of the two guns captured on that 
occasion was turned and fired at the retreating enemy. 

8 At Grimball's Causeway, James Id., S. C. where Major E. Manigault. the Confederate commander, 
was captured, Capt. James acted as aid to Gen. Hartwell, the brigade commander. In Henry James' "Notes of 
a Son and Brother" (p. 376) is mentioned a spectacular dash by James, mounted, into the Confederate works, 
for which it is said he was breveted Captain. The novelist's statement is apparently based upon his memory ot a 
letter received from his brother; I hope to receive confirmation from other participants in the action. 

» Another orderly was Frank E. Thayer, a white boy of ten, who, with his mother's consent, accompanied 
me and proved very devoted and efficient; he became a merchant in Springfield. 

10 Besides other soldierly deeds at Honey Hill, when the color-Sergeant was blown to pieces by a shell. 
Smith seized and saved the colors, and later was made his successor. This is mentioned in the "Recm;d reterrecl 
to in Note 2, and I have <;alled attention to it in a letter (accompanied by a picture of Smith) m The ^ attonat 
Tribune for December 10. 1914; had it been ojficially reported at the time. Smith probably would now hold a 
"Medal of Honor for Distinguished Gallantry in Action" under the Act of Congress of April 27, 1916. 



the guns and fired one upon the retreating enemy. Out of about 350, 10 were killed and 16 wounded; 
see notes 1 and 7." 

"I was never sick a day. I ascribe my immunity largely to riding horseback whenever possible and 
absolute avoidance of pork and whiskey.^^ Our regiment contained an unusually large porportion of 
officers who were either total abstainers or very temperate. If liquor could have been interdicted in 
our army, excepting as prescribed by the surgeons, I believe the war might have been shortened by a year, 
with concomitant saving of life, health, and treasure. 

"The Confederate soldiers, on the average, were as brave as our own, and as fully convinced of the 
righteousness of their cause; their higher officers were often better trained. With equal numbers, with 
resources undiminished by our blockade, and with the arming of loyal Negroes (advocated at last by Gen. 
Cleburne and others) the Confederates would probably have won. 

"Excepting the original occupation of Port Royal, the reduction of Fort Pulaski, the seizure of the 
south end of Morris Island in July, 1863, and the advances upon Fort Wagner by 'parallels' after the 
fearful slaughter of July 18, the military record of the Department of the South presents an almost un- 
broken series of avoidable disasters, accompanied by useless expenditure of ammunition, as upon Sumter, 
and barbarous disregard of non-combatants and property, as in the bombardment of Charleston." I am 
proud of the achievements of our regiment and most of the others, but I am far from proud of what was 
done by the Department of the South as a whole under the direction of the 'men higher up,' most of whom 
are now dead. 

"Wars are simply duels between nations. Commonly they have no better occasion than duels 
between individuals, and might be averted by the exercise of common sense, self-restraint, and the inter- 
mediation of disinterested parties. Might not the maintenance of the Union and the abolition of slavery 
have been accomplished without the Civil War, horrible and costly in itself and bitter in its consequences? 

"Why then, did we, the peaceable, religious youths of the early sixties, enter the army as a matter of 
course? Partly because the Gospel of Peace had not been preached. Largely because we were religious. 
Because at church and in our homes we had listened to the Old Testament narratives of wars as if insepar- 
able from human history. Even when explained (as by Swedenborg) upon the basis of an 'internal sense,' 
those warlike passages are not wholesome reading for the young. I hope to live to see the Bible ex- 
purgated of such and other unedifying matter. 



" In Nicolay and Hay's "Abraham Lincoln, a history" (vol. 6, pp. 465-466) are letters from which the 
following are extracts: — - From President Lincoln to Genv -al Grant, Aug. 9, 1863: "I believe it is a resource 
which, if vigorously applied now, will soon close the contest." From Grant to Lincoln, Aug. 23: "I have given 
the subject of arming the negro my hearty support. . . . They will make good soldiers." "Sambo's right to 
be kilt" was pungently versified by an Irish officer, Charles G. Halpine ("Private Miles O'Reilly") as recorded 
in the "Photographic History of the War," vol. 9, pp. 176-7. How the opportunity was embraced is eloquently 
told by Col. N. P. Hallowell, "The Negro as a soldier in the war of the Rebellion," read before the Mil. Hist. 
Sec. of Mass., Jan. 5, 1892, pp. 29, printed Boston, 1897, published 1913 in Vol. XIII of "Papers of the 
M. H. S. M.," pp. 289-313. "We called upon them in the day of our trial, when volunteering had ceased, when 
the draft was a partial failure, and the bounty system a senseless extravagance. They were ineligible for pro- 
motion, they were not to be treated as prisoners of war. Nothing was definite except that they could be shot 
and hanged as soldiers. Fortunate indeed is it for us, as well as for them, that they were equal to the crisis; 
that the grand historic moment which comes to a race only once in many centuries came to them, and that they 
recognized it; and when the war closed the names of one hundred and eighty-six thousand men of African 
descent were on the rolls." 

Whether, without the "stone that the builders rejected" at first, the Union edifice could have been restored 

Please attach this slip between the two leaves of the folio. "The Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Colored 
■ Vu 1-^ r S^ Wilder, Surgeon of the Regiment; printed Aug. 17, 1917; Appendix added Sept. 4, 1917." 

1 he list of officers on the second page should have included not only Capt. C. E. Grant (added in the 

' Appendix) but also Lt. W. P. Boynton, Boston. He Avas killed in the battle at Honey Hill near and 

i at the same time with Capt. Crane, his dearest friend. 

t The proposition to provide tobacco in the U. S. Army ration, and its common inclusion among the 
supplies sent our new soldiers by their relatives and friends, lead me to add the following summary of 
portions of an address on "Narcotics" given Oct. 10, 1917, before the Norfolk County Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union: (1) So far as I can recall, during the Civil War, on an average not more than one 
in ten of our soldiers were habitual smokers; yet that war was fought and won. (2) The International 
Committee of the Young Men's Christian Associations has recently published (Association Press 124 
E. 28th Street, New York) a volume of 188 pages entitled "The Physical Effects of Smoking." 'The 
authors, Dr. George J. Fisher and Prof. Elmer Berry, conducted numerous careful and impartial experi- 
ments to show the effects of smoking upon heart rate and blood pressure, neuro-muscular precision 
accuracy in baseball pitching, etc. They conclude (p. 177) that "clear eyes, steady nerves, and muscles 
capable of accurate response do not go with smoking; athletic trainers have long refused to permit m.en 
in training to smoke; evidently they are eminently justified in their position." In an introductory 
note Prof. Irving Fisher says: "The following essay would seem to indicate that smoking is more injurious 
ihan we have suspected. It will give pause to those who smoke or contemplate smoking, if they value 
their physical and mental alertness." (3) If youths can refrain from smoking for the sake of victory 
m sports they can and should when their country and civilization are at stake. (4) Those who find it 
difficult to overcome the habit may well inquire into the merits of the rem.edies advertised by Edw. J. 
Woods, .534 Sixth Avenue, New York, and the Newell Pharmacal Co., 717 Locust Street, St. Louis, 
Mo. The latter came to my notice too late for investigation. Respecting the former I wrote to three 
of the persons named in the circular, a builder, a phvsician, and a clergyman. They assured me that 
their relief was prompt and permanent. One added that "the person who takes it must be willing to 
quit." (5) In a small folio entitled "The Food Supply and the Human Submarine." Henry W. Farnam, 
Professor of Economics in Yale University, forcibly presents statistics respecting the enormous cost of 
alcoholics and tobacco; he then says : "If we would but cut our tobacco consumption in half we should 
release over 100,000, of whom about half are men." (6) If we should be defeated in the present "World 
War" it would be due, in part at least, to our wanton waste of labor and material at home, and to our 
unwisely supplying our fighters abroad with a poison that impairs their efficiency. 

Burt G. Wilder, M.D., 93 Waban Hill Road, North, Chestnut Hill, Mass., Oct. 30, 1917. 



caused by a severe wound, was deeply regretted. His successor was Brig.-Gen. A. S. Hartwell/ Natick, 
late Judge of the Supreme Court of the Hawaiian Islands: Br. Cols. C. B. Fox, Dorchester, and VV. Nutt, 
Natick, both late members of the State Legislature: Major S. Wales, Chelsea: Lt. and Adjt. W. P. 
Hallowell: Capt. and Adjt. L. B. Perry, Natick, now Buffalo, N. Y.: Major W. Pratt, Sterling (detailed 
as ordnance offtcer on Morris Is., where, from the explosion of a shell, he received an injury that caused 
his death soon after the war): Capt. and Adjt. C. \V. Mutell, Springfield: Capt. W. D. Crane, Boston 
(killed at Honey Hill while acting as aid to Gen. Hartwell): Lieut. D. H. Jones, Winchester, N. H. 
(accidentally killed in Florida) : Lieut. E. R. Hill, Salem (killed soon after the battle of Honey Hill) : 
Lieut. L. C. Alden, Boston, the first officer commissioned, died from disease soon after the regiment 
reached the South: Br. Major R. J. Hamilton, then and now of Springfield: Capt. C. C. Soule, Brookline 
(died Jan. 7, 1913)*: Capt. J. Gordon, Chelsea (now Chicago, 111.): Capt. C. P. Bowditch, Boston, 
after a year of service transferred to the Fifth Mass. Cavalry, Colored, now Jamaica Plain: Br. Major F. 
Goodwin, Boston^: Br. Major J. D. Thurber, Plymouth, his present residence': Br. Major W. H. Torrey, 
Foxboro: Capt. G. M. Woodward, Worcester, severely wounded at Honey Hill: Capt. T. F. Ellsworth, 
Ipswich, led in saving Gen. Hartwell at Honey Hill: Capt. J. C. Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, shot through the 
body at Honey Hill: Br. Major G. T. Garrison, eldest son of William Lloyd Garrison, regimental quarter- 
master, spring of 1864: Br. Major N. E. Ladd, Groveland, assistant provost-marshal, summer of 1865: 
Br. Major G. F. McKay, Boston, wounded Feb. 9, 1865, while on the staff of Col. E. N. Hallowell: 
Br. Capt. Robertson James, Newport, R. I.**: Lieut. T. L. Harman, Cambridge, now Boston: Lieut. E. A. 
Wood, Boston: Lieut. H. N. Sheldon, Boston, where he still resides; resigned 1915, as Justice of the 
Supreme Judicial Court of Mass.: Lieut. E. P. Gould, Cambridge, later Major in the 59th: Lieut, and 
Quarter-master G. B. Mussey, Edgartown: Lieuts. J. O. Mowry, Athol: W. Gannett, St. Louis: E. S. 
Stimpson, Salem: H. Holt, Andover: E. Fowler, Amesbury: A. Marsh, Fitchburg: W. C. Roberts, 
Weston: J. A. Bean, Natick: E. H. Jewett, Roxbury; P. N. Sprague, E. Weymouth: S. C. Starbird, 
N. Y. City: C. L. Roberts, Weston, now National Mil. Home, Ind. : G. H. Carter, Boston: J. H. King- 
ston, Lexington, Ky. : W. D. Messinger, Peterboro, N. Y. : J. T. Nichols, Royalston, N. Y.: A. H. 
Bradish, Boston: C. F. Lee, Templeton: G. A. Glidden, Natick: M. E. Hunter, Boston. The first 
surgeon was W. S. Brown, So. Reading, later Stoneham: the other assistant surgeons were W. M. 
Babbitt, Braintree, afterward surgeon 103d U. S. Colored Infantry: and W. H. Lathrop, Boston, now 
Lowell. The following colored non-commissioned officers were promoted to be second lieutenants: — 
J. M. Trotter, afterward Register of Deeds for the District of Columbia and father of the editor of The 
Guardian: W. H. Dupree, long the esteemed superintendent of Post Office Station A in Boston, where he 
still resides: C. L. Mitchell, Boston, and J. D. Shorter, Washington, D. C, both wounded at Honey 
Hill: A. W. Shadd, West Chester, Pa.: R. M. White, Sumter, S. C: M. F. Becker, Africa: A. M. Jones, 
Charlotte Co., Va. At different times there served Dr. Wilder as "orderlies" * two enlisted men whom 
he came to know thoroughly and of whom he spoke in the highest terms in all respects; neither would 
taste liquor; David Lee of Co. C, lives in Xenia, Ohio; Andrew J. Smith, Co. B, in Grand Rivers, Ky.*" 

Like the 54th, the 55th was recruited mainly at the North; out of 980 only 182 were born in the 
slave states. Both regiments went into the field uctler the threat of the Confederate Congress to kill or 
enslave Negro soldiers, if captured, and to put their officers to death. 

Both regiments enlisted with the assurance that in all respects they were to be treated as were the 
white troops. When, later, through administrative misunderstanding or pusillanimity, they were offered 
the pay of laborers, they refused to accept it and served for more than a year without a dollar; meantine 
many had been killed in battle or died of disease, and the families of some were in want. 

At Honey Hill, November 30, 1864, after several other regiments had been repulsed, a battalion of 
the 55th charged the Confederate works, losing in a few moments, killed and wounded, about half the 
officers and one-third the enlisted men engaged. At Rivers' Causeway, July 2, 1864, after the repulse of 
two other regiments by unexpected artillery, the 55th enlisted men, without orders, charged and captured 



the guns and fired one upon the retreating enemy. Out of about 350, 10 were killed and 16 wounded; 
see notes 1 and 7." 

"I was never sick a day. I ascribe my immunity largely to riding horseback whenever possible and 
absolute avoidance of pork and whiskey.^^ Our regiment contained an unusually large porportion of 
officers who were either total abstainers or very temperate. If liquor could have been interdicted in 
our army, excepting as prescribed by the surgeons, I believe the war might have been shortened by a year, 
with concomitant saving of life, health, and treasure. 

"The Confederate soldiers, on the average, were as brave as our own, and as fully convinced of the 
righteousness of their cause; their higher officers were often better trained. With equal numbers, with 
resources undiminished by our blockade, and with the arming of loyal Negroes (advocated at last by Gen. 
Cleburne and others) the Confederates would probably have won. 

"Excepting the original occupation of Port Royal, the reduction of Fort Pulaski, the seizure of the 
south end of Morris Island in July, 1863, and the advances upon Fort Wagner by 'parallels' after the 
fearful slaughter of July 18, the military record of the Department of the South presents an almost un- 
broken series of avoidable disasters, accompanied by useless expenditure of ammunition, as upon Sumter, 
and barbarous disregard of non-combata'nts and property, as in the bombardment of Charleston.^' I am 
proud of the achievements of our regiment and most of the others, but I am far from proud of what was 
done by the Department of the South as a whole under the direction of the 'men higher up,' most of whom 
are now dead. 

"Wars are simply duels between nations. Commonly they have no better occasion than duels 
between individuals, and might be averted by the exercise of common sense, self-restraint, and the inter- 
mediation of disinterested parties. Might not the maintenance of the Union and the abolition of slavery 
have been accomplished without the Civil War, horrible and costly in itself and bitter in its consequences? 

"Why then, did we, the peaceable, religious youths of the early sixties, enter the army as a matter of 
course? Partly because the Gospel of Peace had not been preached. Largely because we were religious. 
Because at church and in our homes we had listened to the Old Testament narratives of wars as if insepar- 
able from human history. Even when explained (as by Swedenborg) upon the basis of an 'internal sense,' 
those warlike passages are not wholesome reading for the young. I hope to live to see the Bible ex- 
purgated of such and other unedifying matter. 



>i In Nicolay and Hay's "Abraham Lincoln, a historv" (vol. 6, pp. 465-466) are letters from which the 
lollowing are extracts: — From President Lincoln to Geni 'al Grant, Aug. 9, 1863: "I believe it is a resource 
which, if vigorously applied now, will soon close the contest." From Grant to Lincoln, Aug. 23: "I have given 
the subject of arming the negro my hearty support. . . . They will make good soldiers." "Sambo's right to 
be kilt" was pungently versified by an Irish officer, Charles G. Halpine ("Private Miles O'Reilly") as recorded 
in the "Photographic History of the War," vol. 9, pp. 176-7. How the opportunity was embraced is eloquently 
told by Col. N. P. Hallowell, "The Negro as a soldier in the war of the Rebellion," read before the Mil. Hist. 
Soc. of Mass., Jan. 5, 1892, pp. 29, printed Boston, 1897, published 1913 in Vol. XIII of "Papers of the 
M. H. S. M.," pp. 289-313. "We called upon them in the day of our trial, when volunteering had ceased, when 
the draft was a partial failure, and the bounty system a senseless extravagance. They were ineligible for pro- 
motion, they were not to be treated as prisoners of war. Nothing was definite except that they could be shot 
and hanged as soldiers. Fortunate indeed is it for us, as well as for them, that they were equal to the crisis; 
that the grand historic moment which comes to a race only once in many centuries came to them, and that they 
recognized it; and when the war closed the names of one hundred and eighty-six thousand men of African 
descent were on the rolls." 

Whether, without the "stone that the builders rejected" at first, the Union edifice could have been restored 
at all, it is now useless to discuss; certainly the struggle would have been greatly prolonged without the colored 
-oldiers. To their fidelity, industry, valor, and occasional initiative, abundant testimony is supplied by the 
"War Records" (e.g., serial number 46, pp. 328-330, 362, and elsewhere), and by papers {e.g., "The Colored 
Troops," Gen. Selden Connor, in "War Papers," Maine Commandery of the Loyal Legion, vol. 3, pp. 61-82), 
"The Negro as a Soldier," by Brig. Gen. A. S. Burt. U.S.A., retired, "The Crisis," Feb. 11, 1913. Nevertheless, 
in the "Photographic History of the Civil War" their services are scantily set forth; in that magnificent travesty 
of history, the photo-play, "The Birth of a Nation," and in Thomas Dixon's interesting novel, "The Southerner" 
(pp. 331, 332, 355, 383, 435-438) they are grossly misrepresented. From intimate association during two years 
and three months, from the sources of information above referred to, and from reports of the Spanish War {e.g.. 
Col. R. L. BuUard's article, "The Negro Volunteer," (Jour. Military Service Institution, July, 1901, pp. 29-39) 
and from accounts of the recent troubles in Mexico, I conclude that the average Negro is a natural soldier, and 
that, in the present emergency, the failure to enlist his active and cordial co-operation would be an error, gigantic 
if not fatal. 

" Likewise — and since, to the age of 76 — to abstention from tobacco. Grounds for not joining the ranks 
of the present vast majority of voluntary slaves to a habit costly, needless, unwholesome, unjust, and a fire- 
menace, are stated in documents obtainable from Dr. C. G. Pease, president of the Non-Smoker's Protective 
League of America, 101 W. 72d St., N. Y. City, and in (among others) the following letters from me: "The 
Cigaret Smoker," iVew York Tribune, March 24, 1911; "When Author's are Empty," Boston Globe, ]une 18. 
1915; and "Would Christ Smoke?" Brooklyn Eagle, Dec. 21, 1916. 

" That and all other officially authorized misdeeds on both sides during the Civil War pale beside the 
atrocities ordered or connived at by the Imperial German Government during the last three years. There would 
be less surprise at the apparently recent outbreaks of Teutonic atavistic military mania (as exemplied in the 
section on "War- Worship" on pp. 133-59 of the "Gems of German Thought," compiled by William Archer, 1917) 
were there more general knowledge of the "Physiophilosophy" of Prof. Lorenz Oken of Munich (translated by 
Tulk, London, 1847, first read by me in 1867) : "The art of War is the highest, most exalted art; the art of free- 
dom and of right, of the blessed condition of Man and of humanity — the Principle of Peace." "Die Kriegskunst 
ist die hochste, erhabenste Kunsl; die Kunst der Freiheit und des Rechts, des seeligen Zustandes des Menschen und 
der Menschheit — das Prinzip des Friedens." This is an amplification of one of the concluding sentences of the 
original edition of 1910: "Der Held ist der Golt der Menschheit." Herein may be the answer to the question of 
Cassius. "Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed?" 



"The 'War Records' contain frequent ascriptions of victories to an 'overruling Providence.' The 
Confederate commanders were more confident than ours. Nevertheless the final outcome was adverse. ^j 
Were there two 'Gods of War,' and did one retire? No. War is an invention of the Devil,!^ and he may 
encourage, restrain, or deceive. Unless we are prepared to concede that the Deity sanctioned the murder 
of Abraham Lincoln — the greatest calamity that ever befell this nation, especially the southern portion 
of it — we have no right to assume that over human battles He exercises any more control than over a 
dog- fight." 

A striking example of feminine superiority and domination was found by the speaker during his 
service, in the shape of a spider, Nephila, afterwards described in scientific periodicals and (with illustra- 
tions) in the Atlantic for August, 1866. _ The female not only makes the net and catches the prey but 
weighs at least 100 times her mate; that is as if the average man of 140 pounds should attach himself to a 
woman of seven tons. Under such conditions Equal Suffrage would soon cease to be an academic ques- 
tion.^^ 



" As remarked by me at a meeting of the Brookline Historical Society, April 14, 1915 (reported in The 
Chronicle of the 17th) : "The Confederate commanders made much more frequent and confident declarations of 
their partnership with the Deity than did the Union generals; a fact worth reflecting upon by the Kaiser and his 
apologists. Commending ex-President Eliot's recent reply to a clergyman's query, 'When may we begin to 
pray for peace?' — 'When Germany is at least driven back into her own territory, and when she has been 
forced to pay full indemnity to Belgium.' — (Boston Herald, April 13, 1915), Dr. Wilder insisted that — what- 
ever influence (by formulating and crystallizing convictions into effective manifestations), they may exert 
directly upon the supplicants, or indirectly upon other human beings — there is no scientific evidence that 
supplications have ever affected the purposes of the Deity or changed the order of Nature." In the better and 
wiser times to come the collation of antagonistic appeals to an assumed single Deity during the Civil War and 
during the last three years may serve to indicate how slight has been our progress from belief in "Tribal Gods" 
and in the direct interference of an Almighty. Indeed, to specify undesirable conditions is to ascribe ignorance 
to Omniscience; to implore relief from them is to imply a lack of benevolent interest in our affairs. The assump- 
tion by Kaiser Wilhelm Hohenzollern of acquaintance with the political and military plans of the Almighty is 
paralleled only by the Rev. William Sunday's declaration of familiarity with the Divine scheme of salvation. 

15 As stated by me in a letter to the editor of the New York Tribune (Nov. 4, 1914) this phrase is substan- 
tially identical with one used by Col. C. B. Fox in a letter to his wife (dated "Folly Island, S. C, Jan. 26, 1864") 
transcribed in a manuscript volume deposited at the Massachusetts Historical Society which I was privileged 
to read in March and April, 1914. The phrase naturally suggests that which is popularly attributed to Gen. 
W. T. Sherman and this is a fitting occasion for dispelling the confusion between it and another epigram less 
widely known, viz., "War is cruelty." This occurs in Sherman's letter of Sept. 12, 1864, addressed to the Mayor of 
Atlanta, Ga., justifying the expulsion of the inhabitants of that city. It is printed in the "War Records," vol. 
39, serial number 78, pp. 418-419, and is reproduced in Bowman and Irwin's "Sherman and his Campaigns" 
(p. 225) and in the "Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman," vol. 2, pp. 125-127. The other phrase, "War is Hell," is 
the one commonly quoted. Nevertheless, as related in the footnote to p. 309 of "Sherman's Home Letters" 
(edited by M. A. DeWolfe Howe, New York, 1909) Sherman himself could not recall the occasion of its 
utterance, and its authenticity was not regarded as sufficiently established to warrant placing Henry Van Dyke's 
quatrain containing it on St. Gaudens' equestrian statute. In The Naiiojial Tribune of Nov. 26, 1914, Mr. 
Charles O. Brown, the popular lecturer, declared that, at the graduating exercises of Orchard Lake Military 
Academy, near Pontiac, Mich., June 19, 1879, Sherman closed his address with these words, which he says are 
remembered as distinctly as if it were yesterday: "I have seen fields devastated, homes ruined, and cities laid 
waste; I have seen the carnage of battle, the blood of the wounded, and the cold faces of the dead looking up 
at the stars. That is war. War is Hell." 

>• As the eradication of Slavery was a secondary object and result of the War for the Preservation of the 
American Union, so the present World War Against Military Autocracy may, as a "by-product", demonstrate 
the fitness of Woman for unwonted physical, intellectual, and political activities. 

[Reprinted, August 17, 1917, revised, from the Brookline (Mass.) Chronicle of May 30, 1914.] 

Copies of this leaflet have been sent to all named in it whose addresses are known to the undersigned. 
Additional copies will be mailed if the request is accompanied by ten cents and a directed one-cent envelope. 

BURT G. WILDER 

93 Waban Hill Road, North, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 

[Appendix added September 4, 1917] 

Through an inexcusable oversight in transcription there was omitted from line ten of page two the name 
of one of our few survivors, Capt. C. E. Grant, Boston, now Worcester. At Rivers' Causeway he acted under 
fire as aid to Gen. Hartwell, the brigade commander. 

Equally inexcusable was the omission from note II of the name of one of the earliest, best informed, and 
most emphatic of the witnesses to the soldierly qualities of the Negro, the late Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 
the organizer and first commander of the First South Carolina, afterward the 33d U. S. Colored Troops. His 
favorable testimony is vividly related in the volume, "Army Life in a Black Regiment," especially in the chapter, 
"The Negro as a Soldier." As the result of a serious injury received in the expedition "Up the Edisto," July, 
1863, Colonel Higginson was compelled to come north in May, 1864, and to resign in the following October. 
Therefore he was not present at Rivers' Causeway, in which his regiment participated. A partial account of 
the action was published as a letter in the New York Evening Post of July 26, 1864, and reproduced in Appendix 
D in the first edition (1882) of the volume named above; and the references to the action on pages 249, 252, 
and 356 of the second edition (1900), will be considered in the paper referred to at the end of note I. 

Addition to note 12, page three. — Never have I suffered from indigestion. The irnmunity is ascribed 
not only to discrimination and moderation in respect to food, but also to thorough mastication. The habit 
v/as formed from the example and precept of my vegetarian parents and was urged upon my pupils at Cornell 
from its beginning in 1868 so long as hygiene was embraced in my department. The dictum, "Eat slowly; 
masticate well; five minutes more at dinner may give you better use of an hour afterward," occurs in all the 
editions of my "Health Notes for Students" (now out of print). Even in the field, when conditions permit, 
the wise commander will not unduly abridge the time for meals. 

To former comrades and to others concerned in gathering and preserving military records is commended 
the use of paper slips 3x5 inches; that is approximately the size of those which, unaware of their probable 
prior employment by others, I began to use in 1867, as stated in a paper, "On a method of recording and 
arranging information," printed on p. 242 of volume xi of the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural 
History. 



i 



m 



